It’s quiet here, the intersection of 6th Street and Vickers Avenue.

Most of the northeast corner is a parking lot adjacent to what was the original “Big Barracks” at Hickam Field, Building 1102, a large H-shaped structure with 10 wings designed to house 3,200 now home to Headquarters Pacific Air Forces at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

It is within Hickam’s National Historic Landmark District, surrounded by memorials and other reminders of what transpired 80 years ago this Tuesday.

Yet, there is no plaque commemorating what happened at that corner of 6th and Vickers. There is no explanation as to why the since-paved-over baseball field came under such heavy enemy fire eight decades ago.

There’s just a “W” designating the last aisle of parking, the letter painted close to where home plate would have been. Look to the left, up to where the “S” aisle starts, and think “third base.” Then imagine 10 machine guns lined along the base-path chalk, manned by Army Air Corps men who were jolted from their barracks’ cots and grabbed whatever they could from the nearby armament shop to try to defend against the second wave of the Japanese aerial attacks.

Only one — Jay C. Groff Jr. — lived to tell the story of that heroism before he died in 2018. Groff left the field to man his duty station, a machine gun on the roof of the Rescue Boat Service’s boathouse at the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

Groff returned and “the ball field during the second attack was devastated by bombs,” he said in a 2016 Army New Service interview at the 75th anniversary remembrance ceremony in Washington, D.C. “All of those people on that gun position I was on were killed.”

So why this baseball field?

According to historical records, fuel tanks originally were to be buried beneath the diamond at Williams Park. The plans changed some time in 1940, the tanks were moved south and the Red Hill Underground Storage Facility began construction off base to the north. But, apparently, the Japanese had the original plans and, on Dec. 7, continually strafed and bombed the field to destroy the fuel tanks and cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

So why this story?

It’s written as a poignant reminder that fate can be such a harsh pinch hitter.

It was just that for one sailor who was less than a week away from returning home with the promise of a major league tryout after the new year.

Just imagine that it is 1941, May 9 to be exact, and the baseball players were as much rivals as they were brothers-in-arms. The Battleship Division I championship game at the Hickam Army Air Field diamond came down to the two ships often moored at quays near each other off Ford Island, the two that would be bow to stern seven months later.

The USS Arizona and USS Nevada … names that forever are etched into the infamy that would be the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7.

There would be other names, too many others, that later would be etched into the memorials that are a dozen or so deep fly balls across the channel from the field where the Arizona rallied past the Nevada 4-2 for battleship bragging rights.

History will remember those players by their formal names: George Perkins, Albert Joseph Konnick, Francis Colston Heath.

But on that carefree Saturday in spring, they were known in the line score as Lefty and Al, the battery for the Arizona, and Portsider Heath, the losing pitcher from the Nevada.

It was the day before Mother’s Day and, although not verifiable, no doubt the Boys of the Arizona Wildcats surely wrote home to share their exploits.

And, surely, one of them was Konnick, who often sent postcards and photos from the USS Arizona’s ports of call. He had spent his entire five-year sea career on BB-39. She was the pride of the fleet, where talented sailors — from athletes to musicians — wanted to be aboard because of her reputation of winning on shore.

Whether fair or not, the Arizona’s large deck was a decided advantage for her baseball players, with her men often playing the game during their downtime while at sea. With baseballs rationed and no place to restock in the middle of the ocean, it is no surprise that it led to enhanced fielding skills and smart batting strategies.

The Arizona was permanently home-ported at Pearl Harbor in May 1940, 21 months after Hickam was officially activated. Some accounts have the baseball field at Williams Park being built by the Arizona crew, others that when the ship returned in 1941 there was a new field waiting. It likely was both since the Arizona was in port for several months prior to sailing to the Bremerton, Wash., Shipyard to be retrofitted and upgraded before returning to Pearl.

However it happened, it became the home field for the Wildcats of the Arizona. And it became one of the targets on Dec. 7.